The prize has been waiting for Jade Samples since Halloween.
Hidden on the top shelf in the back of Samples’ freezer is a bag of milk chocolate M&M’s. Samples, a 17-year-old Vancouver resident, won the candy for her costume at a church youth group function in October. She dressed up as Edward Scissorhands, and made the claws herself with duct tape and black gloves.
Samples didn’t finish first for best costume, but she nabbed second place — and the winner happened to already have left the costume party. Samples won the chocolate by default. She’s OK with that.
But Samples has to wait on the M&M’s because she’s experiencing kidney failure and is in need of a lifesaving kidney transplant. In May 2017, Samples was diagnosed with Lupus, a disease that causes the body to attack its organs. She has been undergoing dialysis treatment three days a week, waking up before 6 a.m. to make it to her 3 1/2 -hour appointments in Portland.
“This is a new thing. I’m not ready for new things yet” is how Samples remembers reacting to her diagnosis. “I’m one of those people, if I can stay in one spot as much as possible, I’m OK. So a lot of different new things isn’t my cup of tea.”
She also has plenty of diet restrictions, which have robbed her of a favorite food (mashed potatoes), and prohibits two other favorites: dairy and chocolate.
Now the grab-n-go bag of M&M’s serves as a light at the end of a long, nightmarish medical tunnel.
“I’m going to keep it, and put it in the freezer until I can actually eat it,” Samples remembers thinking of the M&M’s in October.
Over the last few months, mostly due to her diet restrictions, Samples has lost about 40 pounds. She had been on a kidney transplant list but recently was removed from the list because of another issue that arose.
When Samples lost her weight, she also had an important fat pad dissipate. The pad kept arteries from squeezing her duodenum, which is the initial section of the small intestine.
Samples began vomiting whenever she ate, and was diagnosed with superior mesenteric artery syndrome.
Samples can’t really eat food now, so she has a feeding tube to give her formula to help her regain weight.
“It’s been a pretty tough road, and just in the last couple months, we had a routine and were getting into it,” her mother, Angie Bolster, said. “Now all of this is like a new chapter. It’s the ups and downs that are the hardest.”
The feeding tube has clogged a few times, prompting three emergency room visits. She recently had an overnight stay in Randall Hospital in Portland, and another that lasted two weeks. Her tube was clogged this week, but the family was able to unclog it with Coca-Cola, and get Samples to her first day of her senior year at Evergreen High School.
If she can gain the weight back, she can start eating a more regular diet again, and return to the kidney transplant list. The two-week stay in Randall was especially hard, since Bolster is a single mom with two other boys: Jordan, 13, and Jacob, 12.
“Coming to a hospital is kind of difficult, because my boys are home alone or they’re jumping from family to family,” Bolster said. “I do have the support of the community, so that’s great. I do have a lot of families that are able to help us out so that’s great. It’s still hard because they don’t get to see me when they want to.”
The family works to raise money for transplant related expenses with the help of Children’s Organ Transplant Organization, a nonprofit assisting the Samples. The family recently participated in a car-washing fundraiser at Chuck’s Produce & Street Market in Vancouver. They raised $470. COTA has a $75,000 goal for her kidney transplant, with $1,550 raised so far.
Samples was slated to visit the New York City Comic Con in October as part of Make-A-Wish, but that opportunity won’t happen because of all the issues she’s experienced — the family might aim for San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. Samples is a big fan of anime, and she writes her own fan fiction. One story she’s hashed centers around Neville being the chosen one instead of Harry Potter in the “Harry Potter” series.
“It’s different worlds created through imagery and descriptions,” Samples said.
Since Samples has to miss some of school for dialysis, it has put her graduation date in jeopardy. She was ahead of schedule before the Lupus diagnosis but could fall behind. Perhaps even more than tasting M&M’s again, Samples would like to walk on time.
“I’m really hoping I can graduate with my friends,” she said.
